


Terrors of Being Awake

by tigereyes45



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Attempt at Humor, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 17:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20532113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigereyes45/pseuds/tigereyes45
Summary: Raphael can't stop his dreams. Nightmares clash with reality as time goes by. Yet the one thing that is always the same, is her.





	Terrors of Being Awake

It was no secret that Byleth was always ready to take the fall for one of her former students. Even after five years had passed, and they had all been in more than their fair share of battles. She was always on the front lines, prepared to take any hit, or eliminate any enemy that poses too much of a threat.

Byleth was ready to die.

Raphael wasn’t ready for her to go yet.

The first night he managed to ignore the nightmare. With a start, he forced himself awake to escape. He chose to spend the rest of his time running. He leaped from his bed, got dressed, and ran laps until he was able to chase the dreams away. It almost worked. Raphael believes it would have if not for Byleth.

He doesn’t know when she woke up, or how long she had been watching. He wouldn’t have even noticed her if it wasn’t for the owl. It had been hooting so loudly Raphael just couldn’t focus. He stopped running to find it. His plan was to chase the owl away. So when he finds startling green eyes staring at him from the dark of the rooms. Of course, Raphael jumped. Who wouldn’t jump? It was terrifying. His heart began to race and he thought the Nemesis had risen up from the dead to come and claim him.

When Byleth steps casually out of the shadows he could finally let go of his bated breath. A phrase he only knows thanks to his little sister’s overuse of it. Byleth’s face was a concrete nothing-ness that Raphael had grown accustomed to. Her dark green hair was lighter now. Her eyes had changed color completely. He had heard of people who could change their eye color, but Raphael doubts anyone could have changed theirs as much as Byleth’s had. It was creepy.

“Are you alright Raphael?”

“Ah! Uh, yeah, professor. I’m fine. Why?” He has to fight the urge to scratch his neck and laugh. Apparently Leonie knew that was his sign of nerves. Who knows if she told the professor. The two were often in a one-sided heated talk so maybe there was a chance. Raphael eventually gives in to the need and scratches the back of his neck.

“You’re nervous.” She states it so matter of factly Raphael blushes.

Damn, of course, she would know.

“No professor. I’m fine. Even better than that! I’m fit! Just like a bard’s fiddle.”

“I see. Is that why you were running?”

“Uh ye-yeah! You can’t start the day until you’ve done morning laps.”

She frowns at that. Maybe she can tell he’s lying. How can she tell? Sure the sun hasn’t even started to rise yet, but everyone has slept! So it was morning clearly. That has to count! Why doesn’t she say anything? She’s just standing there looking concern. Her perfect hair slowly drifting in and out of her eyes. Her striking green eyes. He should probably tell her the truth. How could he?

How is he suppose to tell her that he’s scared? That a dream scared him so badly that he just couldn’t stay in his room. That her green hair had been dyed red. That her striking eyes were dull and motionless. That it was his fault because he made a mistake and because he can’t even control his dreams. If he did, like Hilda sometimes says she can then he never would have dreamt it, to begin with.

“Would you like to get breakfast?”

“What?”

“Morning,” she points generally towards where the sun will be rising soon. “You must be hungry.”

Well, this was easier then Raphael had expected. “Oh! Yeah! Yeah, I am hungry! I could eat a pegasus professor!”

Byleth shakes her head but says nothing more. She tilts her head a little and rests her left cheek in her hand. He takes that as a sign that she was listening. Just because he couldn’t talk about the nightmare doesn’t mean he couldn’t think of other stuff to talk about.

“So professor, I was wondering how do you train? I’ve seen you dual with Felix now and then but what really gets your blood rushing?” When she answers sparring with Felix he can’t help but laugh. Dreams are dreams. Nightmares are the worse kind of dreams, but as they sit to eat Raphael can feel himself calming down. The professor wasn’t going anywhere.

As the birds begin to sing the sun rises to their call. Slowly the rest of the school awakes only to find it’s professor and Raphael already through a third of the cabinets, eating greedily as they talk. If only they knew what was to come. Who they would lose, how one would become lost. Raphael may have realized his nightmares were more likely then he originally thought.


End file.
